Kingdom of Sicily

The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in southern Italy from 1130 to 1816, with Palermo serving as its capital. The kingdom was founded by Roger II of Sicily, and it succeeded the Norman County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071. In 1194, when Constance of Sicily married Henry VI of Germany, and control of the kingdom passed from the House of Hauteville to the House of Hohenstaufen. In 1266, Charles of Anjou was the invited by Pope Urban IV to seize the throne from Manfred of Sicily, and the Angevins ruled Sicily until the Sicilian Vespers uprising of 1282. Pere III of Aragon took advantage of the uprising to bring the Catalan House of Barcelona to power, and this family ruled until 1410. In 1412, the House of Trastamara succeeded to power after the House of Barcelona died out, and the House of Habsburg acceded to power in 1516 after King Carlos I of Spain succeeded the Trastamara monarch, Joanna the Mad. Sicily was ruled in union with Spain until 1713, and Sicily was ruled by Savoy from 1713 to 1720, from the end of the War of the Spanish Succession to the end of the War of the Quadruple Alliance; it chose to swap Sardinia for Sicily, and Austria acquired Sicily. In 1735, the War of the Polish Succession led to the House of Bourbon gaining control of the throne of Sicily, which merged into the Two Sicilies in 1816.